KENTUCKY
Church Militant
by Joseph Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • March 30, 2016
LOUISVILLE (ChurchMilitant.com) – The scandal of a Kentucky priest accused of accessing child porn is escalating even after the cleric was sentenced for the crimes.
Following a Tuesday ruling slapping Fr. Stephen Pohl with almost three years in prison, in addition to supervised release and a nearly $8,000 fine, the parents of a young boy are suing the archdiocese of Louisville alleging negligence on their part in reigning in priests accused of sexual misconduct.
In a lawsuit filed with the Jefferson Circuit Court, Richard and Christeena Gallahue claim the priest had taken inappropriate photographs of their son, a student at St. Margaret Mary School, and allege the archdiocese failed to report the misconduct and were careless in their monitoring of Pohl, who had used church computers to view pornography.
The accusations imply a failure on the part of the Louisville church hierarchy to keep a pledge made promising increased efforts to expose abusive priests within the archdiocese. The promise had been made after nearly $26 million was paid out in 2003 to 243 individuals believed to have been molested by diocesan clerics. The suit additionally describes the conduct of Abp. Joseph Kurtz of Louisville — current president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — as “outrageous and intolerable because it offended generally accepted standards of decency and morality.”
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